Boxer is a champion life-saver
FORMER boxer Frank O'Donnell is a pint man - he's just given his 400th pint of plasma and saved the lives of 20,000 babies.
At a celebration yesterday in Glasgow, champion plasma donor Frank was delighted to hold some of the babies whose lives he has saved in the past 10 years.
Babies such as Ryan Gregory Cook are endangered when their own rhesus positive blood is rejected by their mother's rhesus negative blood.
However, Frank comes to the rescue. Unique in Scotland, Frank, who owns a catering company, has plasma which produces the anti-D antibody which is used to immunise a mother within 72 hours of giving birth to a rhesus positive baby. This solves the incompatibility problem for the next pregnancy.
``We need a lot of anti-D,'' said Dr Myrtle Peterkin, consultant haematologist at the West of Scotland Blood Transfusion Service. ``We owe Frank an enormous debt of gratitude.
``Since his level of anti-D is so high, we can make 57 injections from one pint of plasma. This means he has been responsible for saving 20,000 babies.''
Frank said: ``I believe I was saved after a terrible accident for a reason. The reason was that my blood can save babies' lives.''
A former Scottish light-weight champion, Frank fell 45ft off a crane when he was working as a crane driver. ``The hospital had to pump so much blood into me that they ran out of supplies of my own rhesus negative blood.
``They had to take the risk of giving me rhesus positive blood instead. It was kill or cure.
``In time, the rhesus positive transfusion caused me to produce the anti-D antibody naturally.''
A father of five, Frank is waiting for the birth of his 10th grandchild.
At the Queen Mother's Hospital in Glasgow, consultant obstetrician Alan Cameron, surrounded by babies saved by Frank's anti-D vaccine, said: ``It is truly a matter of life that this vaccine is available to our mums-to-be.''
Rhesus negative mum Dianne Cook, whose son Ryan Gregory is healthy because of the anti-D programme, said after meeting Frank yesterday: ``He is a champion life-saver.''
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